Chicago's Hubbard Street Dance proves a success at the Galway Arts Festival, writes Christine Madden. Brian O'Connell went to Galway Youth Theatre's Project '06 production at Nun's Island Studio. Also reviewed are OSC/Spratt at St Ann's Church, Dublin and King, RTE NSO/Annissimov at the NCH.
Hubbard Street Dance, Black Box, Galway Arts Festival
Chicago's Hubbard Street Dance has brought an aesthetically and stylistically well balanced and polished programme to the Galway Arts Festival.
Spanish-born choreographer Nacho Duato's piece, Gnawa, which opened the programme, quickly established a primal village vibe on the stage with Middle Eastern music and exquisite sepia lighting - the dancers seemed to be performing ritualistic ceremonies in the light of the setting sun.
In pas de deux or groups of pairs, the dancers engaged in movement that was often reminiscent of the winding intricacies of Alhambra Moorish sculpture and indicated a sylvan life-force. Lanterns carried on stage emphasised the ritualistic sense of the piece, which was utterly beautiful and spell-binding.
The next piece, Strokes Through the Tail, featured the cheeky side of Mozart and ballet and proved how versatile different approaches to hallowed classics can be. Marguerite Donlon, born in Ireland, currently director of the Saarland State Theatre's ballet, choreographed a mischievous piece that ferrets out the sense of humour bedded within the otherwise very serious 40th Symphony.
In her bendy ballet, the dancers' balletic poses melted as though they were being pulled into taffy. Dressed variously in black evening suits or foamy white tutus, they waddled and nudged around the stage and each other, displaying backstage attitude.
The third, very short piece, Kiss, by Susan Marshall, presented two dancers suspended on thick ropes locked in the throes of a sexual encounter. The ropes proved an ingenious device to evoke not only a sense of weightlessness but also an insightful representation of the strange wrenching forces involved in romance, a graphic representation of both attraction and repulsion. The dancers spun around each other, embraced, pushed and pulled and dragged on each other, always with a sense of no longer being subject to the laws of gravity.
Israeli choregrapher Ohad Naharin provided a high-octane finale to the programme with Minus 16. Using the whole company of about 20 dancers added to its impact, particularly when, at the beginning, they suddenly shattered their small-scale individual dances with a broad, expansive leap into athletic, synchronised movement.
After a section in which a line of dancers washed back and forth across the stage - always leaving another dancer like flotsam in its wake to introduce him/herself to us both in narrative and in motion - the dancers hauled selected members of the audience on stage and included them in a surprisingly effective performance of improvised Latin dance, which demonstrated the skill of all concerned to hilarious effect.
Fair play to the dancers for performing such an excellent programme in the sweltering heat of the Black Box. It's surprising they didn't skid off the stage with the sweat that must have been pouring off them in a rigorous and very satisfying four-course choreographic programme. - Christine Madden
Galway Youth Theatre. Nun's Island Studio, Project '06
Only in Galway, perhaps, could a triple bill from a local youth theatre company entice a sizeable audience indoors on one of the hottest days of the year. "If you haven't had your lunch, you're in for a feast," said director Rod Goodall, before the first production of the day, Bright Smoke Cold Fire, got things off to a somewhat predictable start.
There's something utterly aimless about watching young actors trying to impersonate adults trying to impersonate Shakespearian actors. Taking the theme of love in Shakespearian text, a narrator guided us through a selection of scenes from As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Two Gentlemen in Verona and, of course, Romeo and Juliet.
The action was dominated by over-acting in places and predictable movement at key moments, with bended knees and outstretched hands frustratingly commonplace.
There were some gems, though, including Riona Moore's Phoebe (think Mary Coughlan at the RSC), the enchanting music of Nuala Ní Chanainn, and the articulate narration of Chani Anderson. All hinted at what might have been had the director allowed the cast get under the text's skin. Shakespeare writes on the heartbeat, yet you've got to believe in it to find the pulse.
There were no such issues of credibility in Simon Stephen's Country Music, the second offering of the day, directed by Andrew Flynn. Dealing with themes of violence, disaffected youth, abuse and rehabilitation, the writing takes us through the life of Jamie Harris (Andy Kelleher), from tearaway youth, to absent father and finally ex-prisoner.
Graphic, and at times vulgar language, was all too much for some audience members, who might have expected prior warning given that the production started at 4pm. Yet for those who stayed, the acting was first-rate, with strong performances in particular from Andy Kelleher as Jamie and Seona Tully as his partner Lyndsey. Flawless accents and impeccable timing all contributed to a strong production, which was up there with the best Project '06 has to offer.
The advantage of relevant material was highlighted when it came to Shelagh Stephenson's The Memory of Water, again directed by Andrew Flynn. Dealing with memory and shared heritage, the writing contained some cracking one-liners, yet overall came across far too contrived and laboured.
Chani Anderson and Riona Moore once again shined, while Stephanie Joyce and Ciaran Murphy were reliable, whereas Cathal Finnerty and Jennifer Little could have benefited from a little more guidance.
Despite the script's shortcomings, the production was well received and should get tighter as the week progresses.
• Bright Smoke Cold Fire runs daily at 1pm, Country Music at 4pm and The Memory of Water at 8pm until Saturday July 29th, excluding Sundays. - Brian O'Connell
OSC/Spratt. St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, Dublin
Mozart - Horn Concerto No 2. Flute Concerto in G. Horn Concerto No 1. Clarinet Concerto.
The Limerick-based Irish Chamber Orchestra performs to the highest standards, but has recently been choosing to offer quite a few programmes that might seem arcane even to someone with esoteric taste.
On the other hand, the Dublin-based Orchestra of St Cecilia, when not engaged in its Bach 10-year-long cantatas project, offers attractive packages of mainstream programmes, but tends to perform in a way that is altogether too lacking in precision, point, and sheer focus of musical purpose.
If there were some kind of benevolent magician overseeing Ireland's musical life, a way could surely be found for some of the ICO's performing pizazz to rub off on the OSC, and, contrariwise, for the some of the OSC's programming nous to attach to the ICO.
On the other hand, maybe it would be enough to make sure the OSC played consistently at the top of its game. For the opening three works in this final programme in the orchestra's survey of Mozart's wind concertos, the playing kept to its under co-ordinated, muddy-sounding habits.
The orchestral playing can't have made things easy for the soloists. In spite of some wavering tone, Lesley Bishop gave a better account of Mozart's Horn Concerto in D than an accident-prone Fergus O'Carroll did for most of the Horn Concerto in E flat, K417. Happily O'Carroll sounded at his best in the bouncing finale. And in the Flute Concerto in G, conductor Geoffrey Spratt unaccountably allowed the orchestra to overpower some of the display passages by the soloist, William Dowdall.
Yet in the next work, it was as if a new band and conductor had taken to the stage. The general dynamic level was much lower, the string tone sounded much more cultured, and there was a real attentiveness to the changing character of soloist John Finucane's line.
Finucane was not on this occasion a rhythmically poised Mozartean. He was breezy, sometimes even impetuous, and decidedly showy in the finale. But he helped breathe a kind of life into the music-making that the earlier performances had lacked.
On the other hand, it may simply be that of all the pieces in this three-concert series, the Clarinet Concerto is the one everyone has played the most, and that everyone also loves the most. It's certainly the best that Mozart wrote. And at the end, the listeners made perfectly clear their joyful appreciation of what they had heard. - Michael Dervan
King, RTÉ NSO/ Anissimov. NCH, Dublin
Rossini - William Tell Overture. Mozart - Smanie implacabili (Cosi fan tutte). Rossini - Una voce poco fa (Barber of Seville). Bizet - Farandole (L'Arliesienne Suite No 1). Habanera and Seguidilla (Carmen). Prélude and Aragonaise (Carmen Suite No 1). Rossini - Thieving Magpie Overture.
Familiarity does not necessarily breed contempt. Although this was a programme of familiar works by some of the greatest masters of theatre music, one realised why they have endured. The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, mezzo-soprano Norah King and conductor Alexander Anissimov captured each work's dramatic essence.
But some more than others. In the aria "Smanie implacabili" from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, the expressive focus of Norah King's singing was blurred by a bit of a fight between musical line and the delivery of rapid words. However, she was a star in the celebrated "Una voce poco fa" from Rossini's Barber of Seville, proving rich in colour, relaxed with vocal virtuosity, and as for the all-important timing in this most-flexible of arias - terrific! The seductive charm of the Habanera and Seguidilla from Bizet's Carmen suggested that she has serious potential in this role. In these vocal works, ensemble was good. However, there were bouts of casualness with orchestral detail. This made the Seguidilla, for example, less seductive than it should be.
Nevertheless, the lasting impression created by this concert was of dramatic flair. For much of the time Alexander Anissimov conducted in minimal mode, letting the players get on with it, but calculating the pacing and atmosphere of each work impeccably.
If there was a downside to this approach, it was the occasional moment of ragged ensemble, such as those which stuck out in Rossini's Thieving Magpie Overture. But that was minor. Beautiful playing from the divided cellos at the opening of Rossini's William Tell Overture set a standard of vividness that was this concert's hallmark, especially in the Farandole from the second of Bizet's L'Arlesienne suites. Beginning with a fast skip, it got wilder and wilder without getting faster or losing grip on detail. - Martin Adams
